Sunday, September 5, 2004

This is your life.

Can you give me a vague sense, just a little stick in the mud of what you'd feel like if your day had consisted of these events?

You wake up at about 7 a.m. Your dad takes you out to eat breakfast at Perkin's, you have the Tremendous Twelve.

You get home. You recently got this Ambulance LTD EP in the mail, so you decide to rip that.

About the time it finishes, it's almost 11 a.m. And that means it's time for work.

Today you work 11 a.m. to close. So you work close to twelve hours, depending on how long it takes to get out.

So you go to work. You work at the Steak Buffet.

You go in, punch in when it's time to get to work. You're set to unrack.

You unrack while the person who's set to wash washes. Eventually, the person who's washing gets to go on break, so now you're all alone, washing and unracking by yourself.

You keep up - you keep going out to the prebus carts and taking the plates, so you don't get behind.

He comes off break, and you go on break. You sit there and listen to a tall guy named Alex Kassian talk to an average-sized guy named Chris who has black hair, somewhat long.

You listen to them talk and just sit there, not saying much.

You get off break and go back to work, unracking.

Eventually the washer gets another break, so you're left alone again.

You get a little behind.

When he comes back he tells you you're getting a little behind.

He washes and you unrack a while, but then he's told to go do something else, so you're left alone.

You start working really hard - faster and faster. You get caught up, and when he comes back you say you're caught up thanks to you.

About 3, he decides he wants to go home, so you're left alone washing again.

You keep up.

At 5, you finally get another break. You get a free meal because you were asked to come in earlier and work longer than usual.

You eat a hefty amount, because you are hungry. You eat alone.

Then it's back to work. It's now 5:30, and you're set to bus.

It's so boring busing, because there's not much for you to bus, and when you have nothing to bus then you have to talk to the customers and prebus.

Time passes slow.

6.

So slow. It passes so slow, all those people, taking their plates, being curteous.

You find $2 on a table. It's the only tip you find.

7.

Will it ever end? You keep looking at that damn clock every time you go by it. Your body aches. You wish the clock wasn't there so you wouldn't have to look at it each time you go by it. You wish you were unracking or washing - time passed much faster when you were doing that, and it was at least somewhat fun for you.

You walk into the mirror and look at yourself, how skinny you're getting. You look pretty attractive you think, you're thin and muscular.

8.

Is it over yet? You just want to get the hell out. It's like prison.

One of the other busers, Tyler, is slacking because he has a headache and his kneck hurts, so you're busing most of the tables, doing the same process over and over again.

Tyler's over where those big tables are, and he finds three pennies on the table. When he says you can't even buy gum with that you think that's just insulting, people giving you a penny. What are they trying to be, Benjamin Franklins - "A penny earned is a penny saved" - ?

9.

It's finally 9. Thank god. You can't believe the day's finally almost fucking over.

9:15. One of the managers, a big large man named Steffen, lets you go on another short break - 15 minutes.

You sit beside Chris Koontz, this big guy, with black curly hair. You also sit beside that guy who was washing with you.

You sit there and relax, feeling tired. You say you feel like you could fall asleep right now. You drink glass after glass of water.

9:30. You go off break.

Time passes so slow.

You start busing tables, there's a lot to bus. You want to bus them as fast as you can, so you bus like crazy.

10.

You're done busing most of the tables. The only ones you haven't bused are the ones the people haven't left.

You go in the back and unrack while Chris Koontz washes.

You unrack fast. You want to get the fuck out.

10:30. You bus the rest of the tables. You do silverware, get it all done. While you do it, you sing Nine Inch Nail's "Piggy" under your breath.

"Nothing can stop me now because I don't care anymore. Nothing can stop me now, because I just don't care.

Hey pig. Hey piggy pig pig piggy.

Nothing can stop me now because I don't care anymore."

Then a tall gangling guy with long highlighted hair mostly pushed away in his Steak Buffet cap, Andrew Jinx, and Chris Koontz tell you how to clean the bathroom since this is the first time you've closed.

You put water on the mirror. You wipe it and dry it with paper towels. You clean off the sink with water and paper towels. You flush all the toilets. You change "the shitter paper," as Chris Koontz calls it. You change the drying paper, where people dry their hands, and then you mop.

You're tired and not thinking too straight, but you get most of it done when he comes back. They give you a hard time about it anyway.

You mop it over again, and come in the back and mop some sections.

11. You finally get out. 12 hours behind you - your whole day is gone. You've earned somewhere around $50, and that's without taxes being taken away.

How do you feel? Can you tell me?

Do you feel like you want to die? Do you feel triumphant? What do you feel? Do you have any idea?

Because I don't know.
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